Previous Next

Mark Hindsbo's 16K competition entry has been greatly enhanced and turned into a fully-fledged game.

As an Earth Defense Force pilot, you have to tackle the terrorist X-Force using a state-of-the -art attack helicopter. The first task is to liberate the city of Suburbia from the terrorists, destroying their jeeps and tanks. Enemy vehicles and ground emplacements will shoot towards the player. Over the course of ten levels, more of the plot is revealed (through text briefings between levels) and there may be more than one craft to pilot against the enemies threatening planet Earth. If you don't want to spoil the game, skip the next paragraph.

[SPOILER ALERT] After clearing the Port of Serial and crossing the SID Desert, our hero encounters a large alien boss. Completing the fourth level switches control to a spaceship, fighting through star systems. And for the last two levels the pilot commandeers an actual UFO, relying on alien tech to upgrade their craft and ultimately take on the final boss [SPOILER ENDS].

On loading the cartridge, the player can choose between the original 16K game (by holding down 1, while 2 will clear the save data) and the new game. The disk version and digital downloads contain both games. The cartridge version will auto-detect the C64GS and switch on auto-fire mode; this means the helicopter fires automatically and the fire button is only used to release smart bombs.

After the intro sequence, F1 brings up the help menu and F7 the options. This includes the difficulty level (Easy, Normal, and Hard) and the starting level; levels reached can be unlocked and played again. Auto-fire mode can also be selected here, along with a choice of music and sound FX (in-game keys can change these settings). Pressing Fire to play loads level 1, after the introductory text.

The player starts with 3 lives, with an extra life every 100,000 points. Three smart bombs are also available initially, activated with Space if auto-fire is off. The player's craft has an energy bar, which when reduced to nothing means a life is lost. Dying restarts the player at the start of the current level. Power-ups appear in the landscape and change form according to the craft flown. Restoring energy, switching to other weapons (including homing missiles) and extra bombs are just some of the items to collect by shooting. Bonus objects (such as radar dishes and civilian cars) make a different sound when shot and are tallied at game's end. At the end of each of the ten levels awaits a number of enemy waves followed by a large boss.

The game includes a ranking system. The more enemies shot, the higher the rank earned (reflected in the text messages between levels and the icon bottom-right of the status panel). Missing enemies reduces the ranking points, so it may not be advisable to spray lots of bullets around. At the end of the game a summary page reveals the rank reached, bonus score for difficulty (25% for Normal, 50% for Hard) and bonus objects destroyed. The high scores are saved to disk or cartridge.

There is a lot of pick-up-and-play value here, with an instant appeal. It is strongly reminiscent of classic vertically scrolling shoot ‘em ups, such as Tiger Heli and Flying Shark. The game is really well presented, from the ranking system to the status messages appearing at the bottom of the screen. Scrolling is smooth and the changing backgrounds add plenty of variety. Sound and music really complement the action. Enemy sprites are neatly drawn and animated. Boss encounters are frenetic but beatable. The choice of difficulty levels is a great idea and does make a difference. Saving data to the disk and cartridge opens up the later levels. As ever with RGCD and Psytronik, the boxed editions are highly collectible.

Although there is a choice of difficulty here, I found that the difficulty curve as the game progressed needed more work. Some levels definitely feel more difficult than others and it is not a smooth progression. One bugbear is the energy barriers found in the later levels; these seem very cruel and often lead to instant death. My biggest complaint is being returned to the start of the current level upon death. The levels are relatively short and split into distinct sections, so it could have been possible to add restart points at each of those sections to reduce the frustration level. The draw to see more and get a higher score is quite strong but once the game is beaten interest will wane.

A very impressive game let down by the difficulty curve.